Finally, Screen Junkies tackle the only Christmas movie that no one is tired of yet (and what we always think of when we see broken glass on the floor). The only problem is that Screen Junkies, who can find the absurd parts of any film, can’t find much to pick at in Die Hard.

Well, there are a few things that make it clear the movie is from 1988, but I would have never noticed, since 1988 seems like yesterday. And there were all those not-so-great sequels. Altogether, this would make a decent trailer if they ever re-released Die Hard to theaters. (via Uproxx)

This past year has sure been eventful! The US Supreme Court ruled on marriage equality, Syrian refugees streamed across Europe, everyone and his brother decided to run for president, and we couldn’t agree what color that dress was. The video is inspirational, but the actual top searches are cringeworthy.

Little Easton got his first taste of bacon on Christmas morning. He was quite pleased with all that salty, fatty goodness! Not only that, he made sure he could say the word, so he ask for it again and again. (via Daily Picks and Flicks)

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Someone once wrote about how they do audience reaction footage for TV talent contests. They record them all before the performers even come onstage. Really. The producers ask the audience to pretend they just saw something that made them feel this way and that way and record quite a few faces to select from in the editing process later. Why? Because for one thing, they don’t have as many cameras as it appears, and for another thing, live shots don’t always catch the best reactions. This camera caught a doozy.

The reaction of this guy was so over-the-top that the producers at Australia’s Got Talent went ahead and made a show promo around him alone. But the raw .gif version will be seen everywhere, eventually. (via Tastefully Offensive)

The concept of “Hey, y’all, watch this!” has been elevated to an art form. Luc Bergeron (Zapatou) gives us a 21-minute compilation of the best internet videos from 2015. It’s absolutely beautiful, and breathtaking. The first seven minutes are extreme human stunts that may leave you dizzy. Starting at about seven minutes in, you may become verklempt. At 8:15, it become adorably cute. Then animals jump in. We also see some great special effects. At 12 minutes in, the stunts start again, with a fast-moving sequence of vehicle videos. At 15 minutes, we see the art of video. At 16:30, the dancing begins. At 18 minutes, we see the beauty of places. And more stunts. These videos would not be possible -or be as good- without GoPros, drones, high definition, and video stabilizing technology. And a bunch of fearless people.

YouTube released its annual look back at the past year in video form today. It’s not a compilation of clips; rather, it’s an elaborate production number that uses the themes and memes of 2015’s biggest videos. Many of the original filmmakers and video subjects were recruited to appear in this- you’ll see them in the credits. And since YouTube celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2015, there are some callbacks to much older classics.

Vimeo user cj uploaded a video from a deaf family friend who encountered a young deer that had fallen into a frozen lake. After pulling the deer out, he pulled out a camera to record the aftermath. Redditor ceejface (cj) provided a translation of the sign language.

I was driving along when I see this deer struggling to survive. I felt obligated to help her, so I pulled over, trekked through the woods, and crawled out onto the ice. I used a rope to pull her out. I am so glad she is safe. Now we need to find her mom.

[After he pets deer] I will call her Miss Ice River. She must be so cold. I am so happy that she survived. Farewell.

Beutler Ink commissioned an illustration that sums up the memorable events of the past year. This year, the artist is Luke McGarry. There are 143 news items, pop culture icons, notable people, memes, and themes in this one picture. Can you identify them all? Click twice at the post about it to greatly enlarge the picture. If you get stumped, scroll down at the same link for a map and a list. Oh, you can also buy a print.

Simone Giertz built a chopping machine. Just those six words is enough to terrify those of us who’ve seen her other gadgets. She introduced the machine in a video which shows it to be basically two huge knives connected by a motor. Terrifying. And now she’s made a parody commercial ad for the Chopping Machine. Contains NSFW text. This video shows us all the features of the Chopping Machine and, if you read between the lines, doubles as a soap opera. (via Viral Viral Videos)

If you hate your co-workers and wanted to drive them crazy, you couldn’t do much better than this. RocketJump changed the password on their WiFi and now everyone is trying to get it right just once. That’s all it takes. Getting there isn’t going to be easy. In case you can’t figure it out, this is their password.

fourwordsalluppercase

Genius, huh? But now that the video has gone viral, they’ve had to change it again. Probably to something even more nefarious. (via Daily of the Day)

The Crazy Russian Hacker shows us the power of bleach by putting some into a glass of Coke. This is the kind of experiment you have to stay with constantly, especially that part about “waiting a few minutes,” especially if you don’t live alone. Remember “Safety is nubern purty.”

When I first watched the video, all I could think of was “Why doesn’t bleach work that well in my laundry?” Because in the laundry, the bleach is diluted with water. If you use bleach on fabric without diluting it with water, your fabric can easily fall apart. Bleach is nothing to fool around with.(via Viral Viral Videos)

I’m not sure why they thought they needed to do this, but these workers are testing a hard hat. How best to do it? A whack on the hat with a broom handle! Why in the world would this guy volunteer to wear the hat? This was not a test by professional quality control experts under laboratory conditions. At least I hope it wasn’t. I laughed before even watching the video, just from reading the description. (via Tastefully Offensive)

Monday, December 28, 2015

Daniel Musashi (Flowarrior) and David Barron (Mr E) show us slick moves with lightsabers in the lovely setting of Vancouver’s Stanley Park. The producers at Kuma Films said,

We're huge fans of Star Wars and stoked to Star Wars The Force Awakens. We shot this over 2 days in Vancouver BC Canada in Stanley Park. We've been wanting to do this video for awhile ever since we met David Barron and saw his crazy contact sword skills and thought he looked like a Jedi using the force to move the swords around his body so we figured why not make a Star Wars themed video out of it.

Mad skills and the light that makes the weapons easy to see combine to make a thoroughly enjoyable demonstration video. (via Geeks Are Sexy)

The Unipiper (Brian Kidd) gets into the spirit of The Force Awakens by trading in his unicycle for a BB-8 torso. The balance is strong with him. Not only is he staying upright on that thing in the rain, he’s also playing his flaming bagpipes while wearing a Kylo Ren getup! As usual, he’s doing his best to keep Portland weird. (via Digg)

Last week, Souderton High School in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, had a fundraiser during lunch that featured teachers doing karaoke Christmas songs in the cafeteria. One of the participants was a lunch lady. Becky Alderfer sang “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and as she sang, someone finally had the presence of mind to record the last few lines.

Donny and Miranda Goeb came home from Pearl Harbor (where he’s serving with the Air Force) to visit Donny’s family for Christmas. What Donny’s mom got was the biggest surprise ever -a new granddaughter for Christmas!

How was grandma surprised by this? The new baby, Lily, was adopted as a newborn. She knew the Goebs were trying to adopt, but that’s only been since October, and when it happened, it was out of the blue as far as she knew. (via Buzzfeed)

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Mark Zabala’s girlfriend Maggie has never seen the Star Wars movies. They were planning to binge-watch all six films before seeing The Force Awakens. But first, he asked her to explain everything she already knew about Star Wars. After a few drinks.

Richard Gere stars as Lucas, the hero, whose sole aim is to save the Princess from the Dark forces of the galaxy. He and his Stormtroopers do just that. The surprise twist is that Darth Vader is human and not a robot like we thought. It gets better from there. (via Gamma Squad)

The Empire Strikes Back is considered to be the best of the Star Wars movies -so far. So it’s about time it got the Bad Lip Reading treatment, with special guest voices Jack Black, Maya Rudolph, and Bill Hader. This version is strangely musical: Luke raps while flying his jet fighter, Yoda gets down, and even Chewie has something to sing. While still nonsensical, what they say sometimes actually follows the action. Oh, yeah, and Obi-Wan has some misgivings about Luke’s crush on Leia.

This little girl is too young to sit through a feature film, but she’s truly excited about The Force Awakens. She knows all the characters, even the “Aluminum Falcon,” and reacts adorably to watching one of the earlier trailers. Her father said,

The only exposure to Star Wars my daughter had prior to seeing the trailer was a Star Wars The Force Awakens sticker book. We spent a lot of time peeling off the stickers and she would say: "Who is this?" and I would tell her, and she would stick it in the book. She liked it so much when we ran out of stickers I got some more and now the book is totally coated in stickers. She just got really excited seeing those sticker characters come to life. I think she was looking around like that because she couldn't believe we weren't flipping out the same way :)

Also, she hasn't seen the film. She loves the trailers because they're short and sweet but feature length films are too long / too much dialogue to keep her attention. One day soon I hope :)

It's the final week of 2015, and as we prepare fr teh New year, let's look back to the year that was: 2015. This is the first of the year-end lists of lists I'll be posting between now and New Year's Day. I hope you join me for all of them. Today, we look at the movies of 2015.

2015 Salute to Cinema

Benjamin Zuk edited together clips from 164 films for an overview of the year in movies. They aren’t ranked or critiqued in any way, but the one-second clips are arranged artfully in an order that makes the video flow nicely.

Sleepy Skunk has completed his annual movie mashup, with scenes from the trailers of movies that came out in 2015. A LOT of movies! You’ll find a list of them times to their first appearance in this video at Sleepy Skunk’s Tumblr. Contains NSFW language.

Mode has another installment of their 100 years series, with a loo at holiday menswear. New Year’s Eve is the time for parties and breaking out a special fancy look, which has changed quite a bit over the last century. Dressing up for New Year’s Eve got gradually more casual over the century, but the custom is still to be a bit dressier than everyday wear. The 2015 version is wishful thinking on the part of clothing vendors. As with most of these videos, you really have to wonder what kind of drugs inspired the fashions of the 1970s. (via Tastefully Offensive)

Friday, December 25, 2015

This is adorable. He’s a young Star Wars fan. She moves in next door. He’s too shy to introduce himself. But he approaches her in his own nerdy way. Is he just too Star Wars-obsessed for her?

This is the Christmas ad for the German supermarket Kaufland. There is no language barrier because there is no dialogue. What we have are the universal languages of love, Christmas, and Star Wars. (via Geeks Are Sexy)

What we have here is a classic animated Western story -featuring Santa Claus! Directed by Jeff Hale in 1963, The Great Toy Robbery is brought to you by the Film Board of Canada.

This movie has everything. A beautiful idiot who inadvertently saves the day. Toughened gangsters whose hearts are melted by teeny bears. A horse who listens to nobody. Funny sound effects. If you are in search of a Christmas tradition, I highly recommend this one.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Dean Fisher’s seven-year-old nephew Evan thought it would be cool to set up a camera to catch Santa Claus putting gifts under the tree. Now we’ll find out once and for all whether he really visits on Christmas Eve after everyone’s asleep! (via Neatorama)

I’ve been avoiding posting computerized Christmas light shows, because they start to look alike after a while, and the songs are too long. But this is special. Tom BetGeorge’s home in Tracy, California, went all out with a light show set to a medley of Star Wars themes. BetGeorge is well known for his light shows, we posted the Star Wars light show he had last year in Newark, New Jersey, and his 2013 light show, too.

Since 99% of the lights are LEDs, the electricity to run the show for the entire month is about $80. I sequenced the show using LOR, mixed the music/sound effects with Digital Performer, and filmed it using a Sony A7s Mark ii and a Phantom 3 Pro. This is now my third year decorating. I built all the props using wood, metal, acrylic and corrugated plastic. I am a music director for a living (Centerville Presbyterian Church in Fremont), hence the massive instruments! If you look closely (especially during the Cantina song) the instruments are playing the real notes! Although the beams are powerful up close, they are a small percentage of real searchlights and are so widely dispersed that by the time they are up in the sky, they don't interfere with aircraft etc. The guitar is 17', the piano is 19' and the drums are standard. About 20,000 channels running around 70,000 lights.

The BetGeorges are accepting donations for their local homeless shelter, the McHenry House, from folks who come by to enjoy the lights. (via The Daily Dot)

We often marvel at intricate and clever houses and other structures made of gingerbread, but simpler gingerbread men are also recipes for holiday success. Almost anyone can make and decorate the classically shaped cookies and they're also quite versatile. Here are a few ways people have upgraded the treat, in a list I posted at mental_floss.

Why are the comments at YouTube such a cesspool? Because of the troll! His story is told here in the style of Dr. Seuss, in a manner that quite resembles How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Owen Weber created this Christmas story for the internet generation, music and all. If only the real YouTube had such a happy ending. (via Tastefully Offensive)

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Christmas cards are always nice to receive, but a personalized card is special. Personalized cards designed by the senders themselves are sometimes so creative that you can’t help but share them. See 14 of the best around in this list I posted at mental_floss.

The YouTube channel baracksdubs puts the pop culture in the president. Obama has a pretty good singing voice, though he doesn’t use it often enough. Here he takes on Drake’s big hit, through the magic of editing. (via Blame It On The Voices)

Frijoles & Frescas Grilled Tacos in Las Vegas was robbed last week. Much of the caper was caught by security cameras. While they most likely didn’t get away with any money, they sure caused a lot of damage. But the restaurant made lemonade by using the security footage to make an ad! The ad includes the number for Crime Stoppers in Las Vegas, 702-385-5555, but the biggest impact of the video appears to be making people crave tacos. That’s all good, too. (via reddit)

As Darth Vader gets to know his potential proteges, they brag about the evil in their hearts. But one is so evil that the others turn on him. Can you blame them? I have yet to see The Force Awakens, due to work pressures, Christmas events, and preparations for the family celebration. That means I have to be careful about which articles I read on the internet, and that’s my job! This frightening comic is from Is It Canon? which bills itself as “comics that ruin everything.” Well, this one stopped before it ruined The Force Awakens. (via Geeks Are Sexy)

The Points Guy, Brian Kelly, runs a travel blog. He paid $32,058 for a one-way ticket from New York to Abu Dhabi on the inaugural flight of the A380 Residence flight from Etihad Airways. What do you get for what would be a year’s salary for many Americans? A three-room suite on the plane, custom meals made by a top chef, and a personal butler for the flight.

Yeah, you’d expect a luxury experience for that price, especially for a travel blogger who would eventually write a review. And it was quite fancy, except for the part where they forgot to load his luggage onto the plane! That’s like catering to a food critic at your restaurant and letting him leave hungry. (via Digg)